Starspots And Spin-orbit Alignment In the Wasp-4 Exoplanetary System

Statistics – Applications

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We present photometry of 4 transits of the exoplanet WASP-4b, each with a precision of approximately 500 ppm and a time sampling of 40-60s. During two of the transits we observed a short-lived, low-amplitude anomaly that we interpret as the occultation of a starspot by the planet. We also find evidence for a pair of similar anomalies in previously published photometry. The recurrence of these anomalies suggests that the stellar rotation axis is nearly aligned with the orbital axis, or else the star spot would not have remained on the transit chord. By analyzing the timings of the anomalies we find the sky-projected stellar obliquity to be 1^{+12}_{-14} degrees. This result is consistent with (and more constraining than) a recent observation of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. It suggests that the planet migration mechanism preserved the initially low obliquity, or else that tidal evolution has realigned the system. We discuss future applications of this method using data from the Kepler satellite, which will allow spin-orbit alignment to be probed for many other exoplanets.

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